The UW's current fusion experiment, HIT-SI3. It is about one-tenth the size of the power-producing dynomak concept. Credit: U of Washington
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-uw-fusion-reactor-concept-cheaper.html#jCp
Posted on 10/10/2014 12:23:24 PM PDT by Red Badger
The UW's current fusion experiment, HIT-SI3. It is about one-tenth the size of the power-producing dynomak concept. Credit: U of Washington
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-uw-fusion-reactor-concept-cheaper.html#jCp
Being able to harness the power that drives the sun is the holy grail of physics and engineering.
So far nuclear fusion power has remained theoretical because of the costs of building a nuclear fusion reactor reliable and cheap enough to operate.
The day that could be practicable may soon be drawing near.
The article does not make it clear, but I think that this is unproven technology at best.
So was the nuclear bomb - people scoffed that could ever be built.
The hydrogen bomb is uncontrolled fusion. The difficulty lies in controlling the process to produce safe and clean power.
Well, with the Chinese working on a Thorium solution, maybe finally something will get developed that is an improvement over the current design.
They simply need 2.7 Billion dollars to find out.............
Uh, so far no fusion design has even come close to break even in power, or been able to sustain a fusion reaction for a couple of seconds.
I wish we could have fusion soon but I don’t see it happening short of some huge engineering breakthrough.
We’ve been able to use thermonuclear fusion for a while. Just not constructively. Well, with this new system, I guess a working fusion reactor is only 10 years away. Just like it has been for the past 50 years.
Don’t worry. If this becomes feasible, the enviro-nazis will quickly put an end to it.
Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true
...
If I only had a dollar for every article I’ve seen that starts with a similar statement.
Leap Frog!!!
I’m waiting for the 3D printable version.
Back in the 1970s, my grad school advisor, whose PhD thesis was, at that time, the second most-widely cited paper on a particular aspect of fusion (tokamak blankets), said that one had to have 20-20 vision before we saw a viable fusion plant, by which he meant it would be the year 2020.
While I have not been following developments in fusion technology closely, I don’t think that we are any closer to solving the engineering problems now than we were then.
I don’t see how this design addresses some imposing engineering problems.
Controlled fusion ...”still years away”.
And we have been hearing that for years now.
Thank you! That’s what I thought when I read this:
“Perhaps the biggest roadblock to adopting fusion energy is that the economics haven’t penciled out.”
Well...that and the fact that it’s never been done.
It’s sort of the Obama concept of “leadership.” Just say something and it will happen.
By combining dilithium crystals WITH the flux capacitor they can exponentially increase efficiencies not seen before.
How are they getting the electric currents to the plasma? Seems like the conductor would burn up. If it doesnt burn up how are they dealing with degradation from neutrinos?
Not enough info to say whether it will work or not.
Yep.
Fusion has been “thirty years away” ... for how long???
Magnetically contained plasma fusion is a well proven technology. What this article is talking about is really just engineering innovation, not any new theoretical science.
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